Music-industry fears have been confirmed: Men are spending more of their hard-earned scratch on video games than they are on CDs and MP3s.

The interactive branch of Nielsen Entertainment claims the findings of a study conducted earlier this year affirm the notion that video games are supplanting other forms of media when it comes to men's consumerism leanings, according to Reuters.

Not only that, but video games are pulling in older money. According to the study, which surveyed 1,500 people over the course of January and February, 25 percent of all video-game enthusiasts are aged 40 and older, debunking the prevalent perception that the gaming industry's rapid growth in recent years — last year taking in $10 billion in annual revenues — was owed almost entirely to teens and 20-somethings.

When it comes to guys, Nielsen said video games play second fiddle only to DVDs as a purchase category. Right behind games were CDs, followed by MP3 files.

The findings also revealed that African-Americans and Hispanics fork over more cash on games each month than Caucasians. In addition, Nielsen discovered that 40 percent of U.S. households have some sort of system dedicated to game play — be it a PC, one of the big three consoles or a handheld device. Among gamers who own at least one of the most popular consoles on the market — Nintendo's GameCube, Sony's PlayStation2, and Microsoft's XBox — eight percent owned all three.

The study also explored the amount of time devoted to gaming, and found gamers spend little more than five hours each week playing alone, and approximately three hours playing socially or online.